New York Mets impressed with Jacob DeGrom’s spring training debut

Jacob DeGrom was impressive in his first spring start for the New York Mets, but his status for Opening Day remains up in the air.

New York Mets ace Jacob DeGrom, who has been dealing with back stiffness, made his spring training debut Sunday against the defending World Series champions, throwing 47 pitches over 2.2 innings. The deGrominator started out strong, striking out Jake Marisnick, Tony Kemp, and Alex Bregman for a 1-2-3 first inning.

DeGrom finished his first outing having allowed two runs and two hits while walking one and striking out four, hitting 98 mph on the radar gun. The Mets eventually lost the game 5-2 but at least DeGrom escaped no worse for wear.

“He looked fine. He came out of it healthy. We know who Jacob deGrom is.

You saw the stuff, the velo. He wasn’t holding anything back. He was letting it go, and it was good to see. And he pitched a good amount of pitches for his first time out in a real game,”

The lingering question is whether DeGrom will be ready for Opening Day. If healthy, deGrom should get the ball. If he’s not, anyone, from Noah Syndergaard to newcomer Jason Vargas, who has had a good spring, could start things off for the Amazin’s.

Callaway wants to make sure deGrom is healthy before making any decisions. “We’re just taking it day-by-day and going from there.”

DeGrom feels the same way as his coach and is not rushing a return. “I haven’t even thought about it, really. The goal is to get in a game here first and go from there. That’ll be a discussion between Mickey, Dave and probably myself,” said deGrom, who added he was in line for his next start in five days. We don’t want to do anything dumb and push it. Today was a big step and everything went fine.”

The New York Mets open their season against the St. Louis Cardinals at Citi Field on March 26th.

NYY

NYM

NYG

NYJ

NYK

BKN

NYR

NYI

NJD

SJU

Chris "Cruise" Milholen grew up and still lives in Bergen County, NJ. He is a huge fan of the Brooklyn Nets and the New York Yankees. Chris is currently a student at Montclair State University (Class of 2020) studying Television and Digital Media with a concentration in Sports Media and Journalism and minoring in Sociology. Chris is a sports columist for ElitesportsNY covering the Brooklyn Nets and National/International basketball news. Chris is also a sports columnist for The Montclarion Newspaper.